Automatic color-printing machine.



No. 747,168. PATENTED DEC. 15, 1903. O. HALLENSLBBEN. AUTOMATIG GOLOR PRINTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 6, 1903.

N0 MODEL. a SHEETS-SHEET 1.

M: NORRIS PETERS c0, PMOTO-LIYHD. WASHINGTON, u. c.

No. 747,168. PATENTED DEC. 15, 1903.

. 0. HALLENSLEBEN.

AUTOMATIC COLOR PRINTING MACHINE.

APPLIGATION TILED JULY 6, 1903. N0 MODEL.

3 SHEETS-$113111 2.

F/QZ

No. 747,168. v PATENTED DEC. 15, 1903.

0. HALLENSLBBEN.

AUTOMATIC COLOR PRINTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 6, 1903. no MODEL. 3 SHEETS*SHEET a.

Lite. 747,168.

llnirrhio starts Patented ifiecember 15, 1903.

PATENT tribe,

AUTOMATHG COLOR PRBNTING MACHINE.

SPEGIFKCATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 747,168, dated December 15, 1903.

Application filed July 6, 1903. Serial No. 164,458. (No model.)

To (117/Z whom, it 'may concern.-

Be it known that I, OTTO HALLENSLEBEN, engineer, a subject of the German Emperor, residing at 59 Hirschmattstrasse, Lucerne, Switzerland, have invented new and useful improvements in automatic color-printing machines for printing yarn used in the manufacture of carpets, plush, or pile goods for upholstery, and similar fabrics, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in automatic color-printing machines for printing yarn used in the manufacture of carpets, plush, or pile goods for upholstery, and is an improvement on the machine described in British Patent No. 17,873 of 1900, wherein the printing of the yarn is efiected in such manner that the yarn is stretched in one length and then printed by means of a carriage provided with a printing device, said carriage being governed by a jacquard-machine, so that the carriage stops at the desired points and the printing device begins to operate. These printing-carriages can, however, only be used for printing one color, whereupon the carriage must be brought back to the starting-point and the color-receptacle filled with another color for printing the second color, and so on. If, forinstance, a carpet is to be manufactured the pattern of which contains six different colors, the printing-carriage has to pass six times along the yarn. V

My invention consists in providing means whereby the printing of the different colors is effected during one pass of the printingcarriage along the yarn. For this purpose the printing-carriage passes in the Well-known manner along the'yarn and stops for a certain time in distances corresponding to the double length of the piles. During the stopping of the carriage one of the printing devices is brought into action-that is to say, the carriage possesses a special printing device for each color-and at each station of the carriage one of these printing devices comes into action, the device being determined by means of a jacquard-machine. This jacquardmachine controls several rows of tumblers situated in the path of the carriage, each row of tumblers being determined for setting another printing device in action. If all the Whole apparatus.

tumblers are down, the printing carriage passes step by step along the yarn without the printing device coming into action. If, however, the carriage pushes against one of the tumblers which has been turned up by means of the jacquard-machine, the printing device that corresponds to that row of tumblers is brought into action, and at a certain period the carriage is automatically moved forward up to the next station, where if another tumbler is turned up that printing device corresponding to a certain tumbler comes into action, and so on.

The invention will be fully understood from the detailed description hereinafter presented, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side view of the Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the improved printing-carriage, and Fig.

.3 is a side view of the same.

In Fig. 1 of the drawings 12 designates a jacquard-machine constructed in the wellknown manner. The stretched yarn 2 lies upon the rods 3, and the distance between any two rods corresponds to the double'length of the pile.

1 is the printing-carriage which serves for printing the yarn and the construction of which may be seen from Figs. 2 and 3.

4 designates the rails upon which the carriage runs.

10 designates the tumblers arranged above the printing-carriage, which tumblers can be turned up by means of the jacquard-machine 12. The construction of the tumblers may also be seen from the drawings.

The carriage is driven by means of a cord 6, running over pulleys 5 5, which are arranged at either end of the printing-machine, and over the pulley 7, mounted on the printing-carriage, whereby this pulley 7 is rotated, the motion being transmitted to the carriage by means of a spur-wheel 9, which gears with the rack 8. From the pulley 7 a spindle 115 is driven under mediation of the tooth-Wheels 110 111 112 113 114. Upon this spindle 115 a cam 117is fixed, which cam is provided on one side with a pin 116. During the revolution of the cam 117 this pin enters into notches 118 of a disk 119 after the manner of the well-known stop mechanism in watches and clocks, whereby the disk 119 during each revolution of the spindle 115 is rotated for a certain space corresponding to the distance between two notches 118. Upon the spindle 120, carrying the disk 119, a spurwheel 9 is fixed effecting the intermittentforward movement of the carriage and gearing with the rack 8. The gearing is constructed so that in each revolution of the spindle 115 the carriage is moved forward fora certain distance corresponding to the length of the spotof the yarn to be printedt'. e., to the double length of the pile of the carpet or the like to be manufactured. In order to prevent the backward movement from being an intermittent one also, the spindle 121, carrying the cord-pulley 7 and the wheel 110, is fixed in a double-armed lever 123, pivoted at 122, by the moving of which lever the tooth-wheel 110 can be moved, so that the same does not gear with the wheel 111, but directly with the wheel' 9, so that this wheel 9 is rotated with a considerably higher velocity in the opposite direction, thereby moving the carriage back to the starting-point. In order to prevent a turning of the disk 119 during the backward movement of the carriage,this disk is not rigidly connected to the tooth-wheel 9, but is connected, by means of a coupling 124, Fig. 3, with the spindle 120, Fig. 2, so that after uncoupling by means of the hand-lever 125 the wheel 9 can rotatethat is to say,

can bring the carriage back without influencalways set the desired printing device into.

action. For this purpose several rows of tumblers 10 must be provided, situated one at the side of the other, so that for each color to be printed a special row of tumblers is provided.

In the machine shown in the drawings six different colors are to be printed. For this purpose six rows of tumblers 10 (a, b c 01 cf, Fig. 3) are provided. In the jacquard-machine cards are arranged in which naturally also six rows of holes or pins are provided, each row corresponding to one row of the tumblers'. e., to one color to be printed.

The device for laying on of the color may be constructed in any convenient way. In the construction shown in the drawings it consists of a cylindrical roller 126, provided with perforations, into which roller the color is 1edand which is moved to and fro over the yarn 129, Fig. 3. During the to-and-fro movement of the roller 126 the yarn is situated upon a plate 128, provided in a colorreservoir 127 and rising as soon as the cylinder begins to move.

The moving of the roller 126, as well as the rising of the corresponding plate 128, is effected in the following manner: Upon the keyed, a cam 133, Fig. 3, is provided which possesses several tooth-spaces 134, the number of the spaces corresponding to the desired number of to-and-fro movements of the roller 126. Upon the circumference of this cam runs a roller 135, journaled in a one-armed lever 137, keyed to the spindle 136. The latter will therefore oscillate as soon as the carriage begins to work. Upon the spindle 136 are provided several levers 138, corresponding in number to the number of rollers 126, which levers follow the oscillations of the spindle 136. To the free end of the levers 138 bars 139 are hinged. The free end 140 of these bars is made somewhat smaller than the rest of the bars and slides during the to-andfro movement of the same over pins 142, provided on levers 144, pivoted around the spindle 141. To the levers 144 are hinged the rods 143, carrying the printing-rollers 126.

Now in order to cause the levers 144 to follow the movement of the levers 138 in case the respective roller 126 is situated at the spot of the yarn to be colored by means of the respective coloring device catches 145 are provided on the connecting-rods 139, which catches consist of a hook by means of which, if the sameis lowered, thepin 142 is seized, so that the lever 144 is taken along.

The lowering of the respective catch is effected by means of the tumblers 10, actuated by means of the jacquard-machine. Underneath those tumblers two-armed levers 14 are providedthat is to say, underneath each tumbler-row one lever 14, serving for setting one of the coloring devices to work, is situated. The levers 14 are so constructed and situated that they are pressed downward by means of the tumblers 10 in case these tumblers are turned up. By pressing one of the levers 14 down the corresponding catch 145 is lowered, which is connected to the respective lever 14 by means of a cord or chain.

It will be understood from the foregoing description that in case one of the tumblers 10 of the row a, which may serve, for instance, for coloring blue, is turned up by means of the jacquardmachine the rollers 126, belonging to the row a and being connected with the blue color, begin to move to and fro over the yarn as soon as the carriage reaches the point in which the respective lever 14, be longing to the blue color, is pressed downward by means of the respective tumbler 10, so that the respective catch 145 seizes the respective pin 142. a

In order to avoid the unnecessary oscillating of the spindle 136 and the levers 138 dur- ICO effecting the oscillations of the spindle 136T that in case the nose 163 moves the lever 164 and the levers ,138, upon which part the roller runs during the running of the carriage.

The rising of the respective plate 128, be longing to the coloring device,is effected in the following manner: Upon the spindle 132 a second cam 146 is provided, which is made smalleronlyin one part. Upon this cam runs a roller fixed to the lever 147, which lever consequently swings downward as soon as the roller comes to the smaller part. The movement of the lever 147 is transferred, by means of a connectingrod 148 and a lever 149, to a shaft 150, upon which several levers 151, corresponding in number to the number of coloring devices, are fixed. The levers 151, which consequently during each rest of the carriage swing once backward and forward, are provided with pins 152, which serve the purpose of taking the noses of the catches 153 along as soon as the respective catches are lowered. The lowering of the respective catches 153 is effected in the same manner as described above from the tumblers 10 and the levers 14 by means of cords, strings, orchains. By the catches 153 being drawn forward small spindles 154, journaled in the color-reservoirs 127,are oscillated by means of the small levers 155, fixed to the spindle 154 and to the catches 153. To the spindle 154 levers 156 are fixed, which levers carry the plate 128, so that in case these levers are raised the plate 128 is pressed against the yarn 129. As the higher part of the cam 146 corresponds with that part of the cam 133 at which the toothspaces 134 in the cam 133 are provided, the plate 128 is raised as soon as the corresponding roller 126' begins to move to and fro, and this plate remains so long in its raised position until the movement of the roller ceases, whereupon it returns into the color-reservoir 127. After the plate 128 has been lowered the roller 126 is prevented from falling by means of a roller 169, mounted on the bar 143, running upon a bar 168. The levers 14, by the pressing down of which the coloring devices are set to work, are kept in the depressed position by means of two-armed levers 158, influenced by spiral springs 157, which levers 158 are provided with a nose, upon which the levers 14 rest in case they are pressed down, thus holding these levers in their position.

In order to release the levers as soon as the carriage goes on, a bar 160, provided with pin 159, is provided, by the movement of which bar all the levers 158 are moved out of the path of the levers 14, so that these levers return to their normal position by the effect of the spiral springs 161, fixed to the same.

The moving of the bar 160 for the purpose of releasing the'levers 14 is efiected by means of a earn 162, provided with a nose 163, which nose moves-a lever 164, provided with a roller 165. The bar 160 is connected by means of the connecting-rod 166 with the lever 164, so

the bar 160 is moved, and herewith all the levers 14 are brought back to their normal position. The moving back of the bar 160 is effected by means of the spiral spring 167. It will be understood that the printing-carriage consequently works perfectly automatically and that all the necessary colors are printed during one pass of the carriage. Finally it should be noted that While as stated the different colors are put on the yarn at the same time from one printing-carriage several such carriages may be used at the same time in one machine, that the color-troughs remain in place always, and that now only one jacquard-card is used for all the colors, even if twenty colors are used-as, for instance, in the case of tapestry, carpetry, &c.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a machine for printing yarn, a carriage, means for imparting an intermittent movement of the same along the yarn to be printed, printing devices, and means to selectively control the operation of the printing devices in each position of the carriage, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. In a machine for printing yarn, the combination with a jacquard-machine, a carriage, means for im partingastep-by-step movement to the carriage along the yarn to be printed, a plurality of printing devices and means controlled by the jacquard-machine for automatically operating a printing device at each stop of the carriage, substantially as described.

3. In a machine for printing yarn, the combination with a jacquard-machine, of a carriage, means for imparting an intermittent movement to the carriage along the yarn, rows of printing devices on said carriage corresponding to the rows on the jacquardmachine, a row of tumblers for each printing device and means controlled by the tumblers for operating the printing devices, substantially as set forth.

4. In a machine for printing yarn, the combination with ajacquard-machine, ofa frame, a carriage movably mounted thereon, means for imparting a forward intermittent motion to the latter, means for automatically return ing the same, rows of printing devices on the carriage corresponding to the rows of the jacquard machine, a row of tumblers for each printing device, and means for operating each printing device by a tumbler in each row, substantially as set forth.

5. In a machine for printing yarn, the combination with ajacquard-machine, ofa frame, strands of yarn supported on the latter, a carriage movably mounted on the frame, rows of printing devices mounted on the carriage transversely of the yarn, rows of levers on the carriage corresponding to the rows of the jacquard-machine, a connecting medium between each printing device and one lever in each row, and rows of tumblers, operable by the jacquardmachine, corresponding to the rows of levers, substantially as described.

6. In a machine for printing yarn, the combination with a jacquard-machine, of a frame,

strands of yarn supported on the latter, a carriage movably mounted on the frame, means for imparting a forward intermittent motion to the carriage, means for automatically returning the same at the end of its forward travel, rows of printing devices mounted on the carriage, means for operating the printing devices transversely to the yarn, rows of operating-levers on the carriage corresponding to the rows of the jacquardmachine, a :5 connection between each printing device and each row of levers, rows of tumblers on the frame corresponding to the rows of levers, and

OTTO HALLENSLEBEN.

Witnesses:

ULYssEs BYWATER, HENRY M. MORGAN. 

